jeudi 24 mai 2018

Huawei will stop providing bootloader unlocking for all new devices

Earlier this month, we wrote about Huawei and Honor users not being unable to access the page for generating bootloader unlock codes. The page was removed with no explanation, but they were at least still taking requests in a Google Doc and giving out bootloader unlock codes. Today, the news is much grimmer. Huawei (and Honor) will stop providing unlock codes completely.

The announcement shown above is from the Huawei unlock page. It was first discovered by XDA members in the Honor View 10 forum. The announcement says they have stopped the unlock code application service to “provide better user experience and avoid issues caused by ROM flashing.” The service will be stopped in 60 days for devices released before today. That means old devices have about two months and new devices will never be eligible.

Obviously, this is a pretty big blow to the developer and modding community. Many considered Huawei to be one of the few developer-friendly OEMs. The bootloader unlock codes are what allow users to do things like install TWRP, use custom ROMs, and get root access. Not giving out unlock codes essentially makes the devices useless for developers.

Huawei has not released an official statement (beyond the announcement pop-up) on this situation yet. This is a disappointing situation that we hope is not as dire as it seems.